Seahorse shaped from plywood

I laminated 4 pieces of ply wood, cut a seahorse outline on the bandsaw, then used sanding drums to shape the seahorse… drilled a hole in the bottom for a dowel and made a platform to support it. It is about 14” high. I made this several years ago for my daughter, but I recently discovered boxes made by mgb_2x and it reminded me of what I liked about shaping plywood… very interesting effects.

(I forgot to add: this project plan was from Arbortech, (http://www.arbortech.com.au/upload/pages/news_20090109144014/seahorse.pdf) a company that makes carvers to fit on angle grinders… their cutters look like teeth from a chain saw… I didn’t use their product, but I used the pattern and concept… I didn’t want to make it seem like it was my idea when it was not… I am not original enough to have thought it up on my own!! )

I am amazed at the projects that are posted using the old plywood as a medium. I really thought that ply was only suitable for large projects. It is so suprising the nice effect that comes out of a project made from ply. Thanks for posting, it really makes you wonder what you could make out of some cheap ply.

Take a look at Lumberjock projects 26933 and 27930 by mgb2x. He made miter-cornered boxes in plywood, then shaped them and the visual effect was phenomenal… not too different from the ‘art boxes’ demonstrated by Andy, but with the plywood effect. mgb2x contoured the box sides using a set of cove fences on the table saw, and Andy and I used sanding drums, belts, etc… but it is obvious that the technique of starting w/a thick box and artistically shaping it creates some very nice looking projects. The only thing left is to experiment with is using different grades of plywood like Finnish vs Baltic Birch vs ApplePly vs big-box-store-whatever-they-carry-ply (which is what mgb_2x used!) ( http://lumberjocks.com/projects/27930 )

BarbS,
I got the seahorse plan and idea from Arbortech… their products are appropriate for large sculpting projects, like carving logs. I think their demo seahorse and plans call for it to be about 2-3 ft. high!! Now that is dramatic! But then again, that’s where their tools come into play. It took me a lot of time and sanding materials to do this smaller project whereas larger projects shape quicker with the ‘big boy’ grinder toys that they sell… once shaped with their grinding wheels it still needs sanding, but sanding for smoothing is easier than sanding for shaping. I chickened out and chose to downsize the project, but the plywood effect still worked out very well (as you said, “dramatic”) and my daughter really liked receiving it. Thanks for your comment.